ECAFE's first Executive Secretary, Palamadai S. Lokanathan of India, was an economist who had made a distinguished career in teaching, government service, and private enterprise, before coming to Shanghai in 1947 to head the office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE).

Dr. Lokanathan was a member of the Senate of Madras and a member of the Academic Council of Madras University, where he was Professor of Economics. He was also a member of the Board of Studies in Economics for the Universities of Madras, Travancore, Annamali and Andhra, and Chairman of the Commerce College, Delhi University, Delhi.

While he was still at Madras University, he became a member of the consultative Committee of Economists to the Indian Government; he was also appointed a member of the Labour Advisory Board of the Madras Government, and he was a president of the Economic Association of India.

To a large section of the Indian public Dr. Lokanathan became known as editor of the Eastern Economist which he joined after he worked as editor of the Hindustani Times, also in New Delhi.

Mr. Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan of India, became the second Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) from 1956 to 1959.

Mr. Narasimhan entered the Indian Civil Service in 1936. After 13 years of service with the Provincial Government of Madras, he joined the Government of India in 1950, and until his appointment to the post of Executive Secretary of ECAFE, he held several important posts in the Indian Ministries of Agriculture and Finance. At the time of his appointment to ECAFE in 1956, he was serving as Joint Secretary in the Economic Affairs Department of the Ministry of Finance.

From January 1959 to March 1961, Mr. Narasimhan was Under-Secretary for Special Political Affairs. Part of this period, he also served concurrently as Associate Managing Director of the United Nations Special Fund (now merged with UNDP).

He was appointed to the post of Chef de Cabinet of the United Nations Secretary-General by the late Dag Hammarskjold in 1961 and continued in that capacity under two more Secretary-Generals, U Thant and Kurt Waldheim, until 15 September 1973.

In addition to heading the Executive Office of the Secretary-Generals, Mr. Narasimhan took over the responsibility for General Assembly Affairs in March 1962. On 1 August 1969, he became deputy Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He became Under-Secretary-General for Inter-agency Affairs and Coordination at United Nations in October 1973.

Mr. Narasimhan was educated at Madras University, India, and at Oxford University, the United Kingdom.

ECAFE's third Executive Secretary, U Nyun, was born in Thaton, Burma in 1910. U Nyun joined the United Nations in 1951 as Chief of ECAFE's Industry and Trade Division and was appointed Deputy Executive Secretary in 1957. He was appointed Executive Secretary in April 1959.

In 1931, he joined the Indian Civil Service, and had a distinguished career in the administrative service of the Government of Burma before joining the United Nations. Among the various posts he held were those of Under-Secretary and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. He was leader of Burmese trade missions which concluded trade agreements between Burma and a number of other countries. He also represented Burma at a number of international economic conferences.

He was educated at Rangoon University, Burma, the London School of Economics and Political Science and the School of Oriental Studies of London University, the United Kingdom.

Mr. J.B.P. Maramis became the fourth Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on 1 August 1973.

Previously, he had served with the Government of Indonesia for 22 years in different capacities and, at the time of his appointment to ESCAP, was Indonesia's ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of the Indonesian Mission to the European Economic Community (EEC).

As an Indonesian delegate, Mr. Maramis took part in the work of numerous United Nations groups concerned with development issues. In 1970, he became President of the Economic and Social Council (ESCAP's parent body) at a time when the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade 1971-1980) was being drawn up.

Mr. Maramis, who was born in Limbung, Indonesia, in 1922, graduated from the University of Leyden, Netherlands, in March 1951. He entered the service of his Government the same year in the Directorate of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and subsequently held a number of posts in the Indonesian Foreign Service.

From 1960 to 1965, Mr. Maramis served as Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the United Nations and, during that period, was chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Co-ordination and Technical Assistance in the United Nations which recommended action that brought about the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

In 1969, Mr. Maramis was appointed as Deputy Representative of the Indonesian Mission to the United Nations, and served as the Indonesian representative on the Economic and Social Council. He was Vice-president of the Council in 1969 and President in 1970. In October 1969, he was the Chairman of the "Group of 77" developing countries.

Mr. S.A.M.S. Kibria, the current Minister of Finance of Bangladesh, became the fifth Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in 1987.

Before coming to ESCAP, Mr. Kibria had spent more than a quarter of a century as a diplomat. He joined the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1953 and subsequently held a number of posts in the Pakistan Foreign Service.

Starting as Director-General of the Political Affairs Department in the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Kibria became Secretary of the Ministry in charge of administration. In 1973, the Government appointed him as the Bangladesh High Commissioner to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, based in Canberra.

In 1976, he became the Bangladesh Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, an assignment which lasted until 1978.

Mr. Kibria returned to Bangladesh in 1978 as Foreign Secretary, serving concurrently in 1979 as the elected Chairman of the Group of 77 Preparatory Committee for UNCTAD V, which was held in Manila. He remained as Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh until joining ESCAP.

Mr. Kibria was educated at the University of Dacca, Bangladesh, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston, U.S.A. and at the British Foreign Office in London, United Kingdom.

Mr. Rafeeuddin Ahmed, presently the Associate Administrator of UNDP, was the sixth Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) from 1992 to 1994. He previously held the post of Under-Secretary-General for International Economic and Social Affairs, while also serving as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in South-East Asia. Prior to that, from 1 January 1983, he was Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Trusteeship and Decolonization.

Mr. Ahmed joined the United Nations Secretariat in May 1970 as Secretary of the Economic and Social Council, and from February 1973 served as Director of the Resources and Programme Planning Office in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. From May 1975, he held the post of Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General until September 1978, when he became Chef de Cabinet.

Mr. Ahmed entered the Foreign Service of Pakistan in October 1955 and held diplomatic posts in Beijing, Cairo and Ottawa. He served as Director for United Nations Affairs and Economic Coordination in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from February 1968 until joining the Secretariat. While a member of the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations from 1965 to 1968, Mr. Ahmed was his country's representative in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) during the twentieth to the twenty-fourth sessions of the General Assembly.

Mr. Adrianus Mooy assumed the post of Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on 1 April 1995.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Mooy was Ambassador of Indonesia to the European Communities in Brussels since 1993. He was Governor of Indonesia's Central Bank, as well as the Governor for Indonesia of the International Monetary Fund, since 1988. In addition, he was the Asian Development Bank's Alternate Governor for Indonesia, as well as for the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency in Washington, D.C., during the same five-year period.

Mr. Mooy began his professional career in 1958 in the Faculty of Economics, Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, as a Teaching Assistant before continuing his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, USA from 1959 to 1965. In 1967, he was appointed Head of the Bureau of Statistics, State Ministry for Economic, Financial and Developmental Affairs, Indonesia. From 1968 to 1969, he served as Head of the Bureau of Domestic Finance, National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS).

From 1969 to 1973, Mr. Mooy worked as Economic Affairs Officer at the UN-ECAFE, Bangkok before going back to Indonesia and served as Deputy Chairman for Fiscal and Monetary Affairs, National Development Planning Agency until 1988. Concurrently, Mr. Mooy served as Assistant for Monetary Affairs to the Minister Coordinator for Economic, Financial and Industrial Affairs (EKUIN) from 1978 to 1983; as Executive Secretary of the Monetary Council from 1983 to 1988; and as Assistant for Development Finance to the State Minister for National Development Planning, Indonesia from 1985-1988.

Mr. Mooy served as a member of the Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly from 1982 to 1987 and from 1987 to 1992. From 1987 to 1993, Mr. Mooy was a Professor of Economics at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.

He has been a member of the Indonesian delegation to many international conferences, among them, those within the framework of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Cooperation, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Intergovernmental Group for Indonesia.

Mr. Mooy holds a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, United States. He received his Bachelor of Science in Economics from Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Mr. Mooy, born on 10 April 1936 in Rote Island, Indonesia, is married with three daughters.